I Love You Too
by Jonnoda
Summary: I met a girl, who was quite possibly more dangerous and frustrating than I was. When I lost my temper, she lost it right back, and she would kick my ass before I had a chance to offer any resistance. [IchigoXRukia]
1. I Love You Too

Isn't it strange how much love can change you? We were strange pair under stranger circumstances.

Him, a 15 year old student with naturally bleached hair, a boy who took all my powers unwittingly, a boy who was nearly killed for trying to protect me from my crimes. He is also the man reached unimaginable heights of power that rivaled the strongest shinigami in over 500 years in thirty days. He is also the man who completely rearranged the face of soul society and its inhabitants, who stopped the soukyoyu in its transformed state, the strongest weapon to ever exist there in millennia without breaking a sweat, the man who defeated nigh on a god, and restored the balance of worlds. The man who saved me.

That's our past. I have seen many, many terrible things, things that will scar me for the rest of eternity, we have both suffered.

But now, living a human life, a life where all of us are nothing more than mere. Middle school students, our only worries being passing the next test, and seeing what high school we want to go to.

We smile, we talk we laugh, we study we argue, we live. At school nothing has changed, he is still an anti-social asshole and I'm still the sweet girl, who is surprisingly naïve about so many things. Inoue is still Inoue, Ishida still sews and repairs the occasional piece of clothing, Chad is still there, keeping his promise to protect those weaker than him.

To the world we are like any normal group of teenagers.

To ourselves we are comrades in arms.

To the world Ichigo and I are just friends.

To ourselves we are so much more.

I love him, the emotion I was so scared to fall to. The emotion I was sure would be my end. I was so determined to not fall. Hah. I never stood a chance.

_My eyes opened wide, I didn't know what was wrong with me, why my heart was breathing so fast, why I felt like I couldn't breathe._

"_I love you."_

_Slowly he leaned in, and in that moment was our tentative first kiss._

It scared me; it scared me that he could invoke such feelings in me.

I ran.

I was scared.

He refused to let me go.

He saved me.

"_Ichigo! Let me go!"_

"_No I won't let you go. Damn it! Why are you running away Rukia? Do you honestly hate me so much; do you honestly see me as nothing more than some idiot school kid?" _

I couldn't answer I looked away, shaking, trying not to cry. His hand had a iron grip on my wrist. It felt like we stood like that for hours, in the rain, while I struggled internally with myself. Then I felt his grip loosen, and for an instant as his touch left me I felt like something so very precious was leaving me.

And I realized that it wasn't leaving me, I was throwing it away.

"_I love you."_

The words came out like a hiccup, choked by the tears flowing from my eyes. I turned to him, to see such shock on his face, and to see a flicker of hope, of life, coming to his dead eyes. I almost smiled.

"_I love you, Kurosaki Ichigo."_

Two steps forward.

I pulled him down by his collar, leaned up, and I kissed him with every ounce of love and passion I had.

We still argue. We still fight. I still think he's a hotheaded punk with no regard for his own safety.

But, he's my hotheaded punk.

That's all that matters.

After that fateful night when we stood in the rain kissing each other with all of our love. I always felt empty.

At first I didn't know why. During the night I would lie in his closet, unable to sleep. I felt complete with him, but at the same time I felt like I wasn't. We found our answer eventually.

It had been a long day, and the last thing Ichigo wanted was to study for his stupid math test.

I asked why and he said he was too lazy, _"and besides, I don't get it, if I don't get it now, the night before the test there isn't any point."_

I rolled my eyes at him, wondering how the idiot could be sitting on the floor against the bed reading manga, the night before a test on which he didn't know the subject matter.

Picking his math book from where it lay unopened on his desk, I yanked his manga out of his hands. Before he could protest I sat down between his legs leaned against him and started to explain the math to him. His arms snaked around my waist; I tensed, and relaxed. I didn't need to hide anymore. He rested his chin on my shoulder as he read the text with me.

I woke up the next morning Ichigos arms around my waist, and his head buried in my hair.

I had never had a more restful night of sleep in my entire life.

He didn't comment that night when I stood up and yawned, but instead of making my way to the closet, I slid under the covers of his bed. He finished reading his manga a few minutes later and silently joined me. He came under the covers, wrapped his arms against me and pulled me to him. There in the darkness as sleep began to overtake us, he buried his face in my neck and mumbled something.

It sounded like "I love you."

My eyes closed, I smiled, "I love you too."


	2. She's Worth Waiting For

_**Navi-Zero** : Glad you liked it!_

_**NanamiYatsumaki** : Again glad you enjoyed my fic._

_**StormBlazer** : Thanks, I remember reading something like that and I couldn't resist not using it._

_**Thank You for your reviews! Its things like that that inspires us Fan fiction writers to keep writing!**_

_Now on to the second part of this two-part drabble. I hope you enjoy it._

_**

* * *

**_

It is true. Life is completely unpredictable

If someone had told me six months ago that I would fall in love with a death god, and that I would fall asleep having her in my arms every night, I would have punched him in the face for being so completely stupid without a second thought.

But as I have mentioned before, life is completely eternally unpredictable.

It is so very strange. Love does things to you, it completely rearranges your life, and your priorities without you noticing or even caring.

Before I met Rukia, my life was based on simply living, ensuring my sisters were safe, kicking my dads ass when he got annoying, going to school, getting into pointless fights with idiots.

Then I met Rukia.

I met a girl, who was quite possibly more dangerous and frustrating than I was. When I lost my temper, she lost it right back, and she would kick my ass before I had a chance to offer any resistance.

It is strange. Before I met Rukia, my life was divided into before my mom was killed, and after my mom was killed. Now it's before I met Rukia and after I met Rukia. This should frustrate me, it should anger me, and I should feel like I'm betraying my mother's memory.

It doesn't.

I know who killed my mom, and one day I will get the opportunity to avenge her. And I will. That's good enough for me, and I know somewhere, its good enough for my mom. I know somewhere my mom is happy that I'm happy.

Happy that I'm in love.

When I met her, I was pissed off. I mean who wouldn't be pissed of if some random stranger decided to turn your life upside down, and live in your closet without warning. And it didn't help that this random stranger went to your school to keep an eye on you and had the personality of an angel to everyone _but_ you.

Yet, despite my initial reaction, I soon found myself feeding her, keeping her safe, pulling her out of messes she made for herself, teaching her about my world. I began to enjoy it despite myself, and I realized I had to stop myself from falling into something that would never work out.

She was a Shinigami, a death god; I was a temporary human-turned-Shinigami. She would leave me eventually, when her powers came back. There was no point getting into something with a dead end. I kept telling myself that and I still kept treasuring her smile, I still kept remembering all the little details that made her, herself. I knew it had to end, but I wanted to have something to remember her by, even if only in my memories.

Then she got taken away.

Sentenced to die for giving her powers to a human.

For saving my family.

_For saving me._

As I lay there bleeding in the rain, dying, I remembered the look she gave me as she told me to not come for her. The look she gave me as she was taken away to her death tore me apart.

I knew that she wanted to save me, and to do so she was willingly going to her death.

_ "If you try to follow me, I'll never forgive you!"_

The idiot.

My last feeling before everything went black was the overwhelming desire to protect her. Too keep her safe, and to keep her with me.

When I woke again, I made a vow. I would protect her.

The fact that I had no way of reaching Soul society, that I would likely have to fight my way through an army of shinigami, that she wasn't human, that she would have had to return eventually.

Details.

I have always made my own rules.

I have always lived my life to my own standards.

I have always protected those I cared for.

There was no way in hell I would stop now.

I was going to bring her _home_.

I admit at the time they were big words. However, I had every intention of living up to them. But after the trials that Uruhara put me through, after being shown truly just how weak I was. I became uncertain, I was scared. I was so close to being defeated. It took his words to make me remember my purpose.

_ "When you are dodging, think, "I won't let you hit me!"_

_ "When you are protecting someone, think, "I won't let you die!"_

_ "When you are attacking, think, "I am going to CUT YOU!"_

_ He raised his sword, and it sang with power._

_ "See? See this in my sword. Do you see my determination?_

_ He lifted his face and looked at me in the eyes._

_ "Do you see, 'I am going to cut you in half!'?"_

They reminded me of my fear.

They reminded me of my wounds.

They reminded me that I was going to go save Rukia and kick the asses of anyone who dared get in my way.

So I did.

_ Abarai Renji._

_ Kenbachi Giraki_

_ Kuchiki Byukuya_

Obstacles.

Details.

Stepping stones to Rukia.

That's all the past now. Everything that happened in soul society, it's the past, it's unimportant.

My life now, is Kuchiki Rukia. And I have no intention of ever letting her go. So we go to school, we worry over what high school to go to, what exams to take. It's stressful in its own way. But, I have Rukia, to take it out on so it's ok. Not that I get much of a chance to tease her these days. She's beautiful when she's angry, and the temptation to pin her against a wall and kiss her senseless is hard to resist. I'll never force anything on her though, no matter how hard it is to resist, I'm not going to ruin this by being a hormonally driven idiot, its too precious to me. I know she'll tell me when she's ready, to take the next step however small.

I have defeated shingami's, Death Gods, with the power to level cities, to wipe out entire continents at a whim.

I taunted death in its face, and lived to challenge it again.

I pushed myself beyond my limits and attained power in a month that would take a talented shinigami, decades to achieve and master.

I rearranged the face of heaven, of soul society.

I did it for her.

So every night when we go to sleep, I pull her to me, I bury my face in her hair, and I say, "I love you, Kuchiki Rukia.", and every night she replies,

"I love you too, Kurosaki Ichigo."

She's worth waiting for.

* * *

_ If you liked this keep your eyes peeled for my next work Let The Light Shine On Us, which I hope I can begin soon. This will be a purely romantic comedy series of drabbles starting onward from the point that ends here. And they really are Drabbles this time, long drabbles, but drabbles. I'll try not to go off into an inner dialogue… again, like I did here. _

_ I hope you enjoyed my writing, and I hope you come again and review!_

_ Jonnoda_


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